Haryana has topped the states in per capita revenue collection under GST

Haryana has topped the states in per capita revenue collection under GST

The Voice of Chandigarh News | Photo By T S Bedi

Haryana has topped the states in per capita revenue collection under GST, become 4th highest generator of e-way bills in the country, widened the tax base by 82.22 per cent, and logged 19 per cent hike in revenue collections.

Besides, the compliance percentage of assesses in the state is 5-7 per cent higher than the national average, and revenue collection under commercial taxes has registered double-digit growth.

This was disclosed by the Haryana Finance Minister, Capt Abhimanyu, while addressing a press conference, here today.

Counting the achievements made by the state post-GST implementation, he said one of the most important achievements had been widening of the tax base by 82.22 per cent. While the number of tax assesses under VAT, Central Excise and Service Tax in Haryana was 2.25 lakh before the introduction of GST, the number of dealers today is about 4.10 lakh.

This is in spite of the fact that the threshold limit for mandatory registration of tax assesses has been raised from Rs 5 lakh in Haryana to Rs.20 lakh under GST, he added.

Referring to the collections, Capt Abhimanyu said GST collected during 2017-18 (for nine months) averaged Rs 1,505.93 crore which increased to Rs 1,804.96 crore during the first three months of 2018-19, implying year-on-year growth of 19.85 per cent.

Under GST, the compliance percentage of assesses filing returns in Haryana had been consistently 5-7 per cent higher than the national average. It has been as high as 98.27 per cent, which is a remarkable achievement.

The introduction of One Nation One Tax GST in Haryana has been very smooth with the relatively small state with geographical size 1.4 per cent and 21st in size in the country, collecting the 5th highest gross GST in the country. Haryana’s per capital revenue collection under GST is the highest in the country at Rs.1876.

About 1.12 crore e-way bills were generated in Haryana between April 1, 2018 and June 30, 2018, catapulting the state to the status of 4th highest generator of e-way bills in the country. Officers of the Excise and Taxation Department conducted physical checking of 1.10 lakh e-way bills, detected 3,358 cases of irregularities, and collected Rs. 21.37 crore as penalty in the two months of April and May, 2018.

The Finance Minister said during the tenure of the present state government in the three complete financial years 2015-16, 2016-17 and 2017-18, the state had displayed robust double-digit growth in revenue collection under commercial taxes with a growth rate of 10.47 per cent, 11.9 per cent and 24.1 per cent during the three years, respectively.

The figures of revenue collection under the GST, CST, SGST, including other taxes subsumed later under the GST, are Rs. 21,546.98 crore in 2015-16, Rs. 24,301.61 crore in 2016-17 and Rs 29,941.43 crore in 2017-18.

Capt Abhimanyu said Haryana had contributed substantially to the successful formulation and implementation of GST at the national level. Haryana participated actively in all the 27 meetings of the GST Council and took several decisions in the interest of the state, especifically like ensuring that agricultural operations face the minimum to exempted category of tax.

Recalling how Haryana’s participation impacted the discussions and decisions, he said due to the efforts made by the state, tax rates on tractors, tractor parts, fertilizers, agricultural implements, plywood and scientific instruments were reviewed and rationalised by the GST Council.

The rate of tax on tractors was reduced from 28 per cent to 12 per cent and rate of tax on tractor parts from 28 per cent to 18 per cent. Similarly, the rate of tax on fertilizers was reduced from 12 per cent to five per cent.

Capt. Abhimanyu said in order to assist the Micro and Small Enterprises Clusters in the state, tax on plywood was reduced from 28 per cent to 18 per cent, scientific instruments from 18 per cent to 12 per cent, and rate of tax on agricultural implements was kept at a lower slab of 12 per cent on the insistence of Haryana.

The rate of tax on parts of agriculture implements was reduced from 18 per cent to 12 per cent. The Additional Chief Secretary Haryana also represents the northern states in the GST Implementation Committee and participated actively in 20 meetings. Similarly, the Excise and Taxation Commissioner is a member of the Fitment Committee constituted by the GST Council.

In the month of May, 2017, draft Haryana Goods and Services Tax Bill was introduced in the special session of the Vidhan Sabha convened for its consideration. The Bill was passed and notified to become operational with effect from July 1, 2017. Thereafter, the rules emanating from this legislation, viz., Haryana Goods and Services Tax Rules, 2017, were also approved at the appropriate level and notified.

Besides these rules, 19 notifications amending the rules were issued during the financial year 2017-18 to ensure smooth implementation of the GST.

The Finance Minister said meetings of the GST Council were attended to review the revenue position, and to undertake requisite law and policy changes to help the economy and all sectors of trade and industry to readily adapt to the dynamic challenges of the new tax regime.

Haryana has successfully implemented Model-1 for implementation of GST system in which all back-end modules were developed by the state. The infrastructure integration with GSTN on the one hand, and State Data Centre on the other, was established. Help desks were established at head office and district level offices to solve queries and doubts of the stakeholders.

The district level committees comprising senior officers of the department and representatives from CA, IT and industries associations were constituted to interact at regular intervals for resolving various challenges and taking steps for necessary guidance and handholding of the taxpayers.

Extensive training programmes were conducted from time to time for the officers and officials of the department. Workshops, seminars and conferences were also held with various stakeholders, including various government departments, boards and corporations to sensitise them of their roles and responsibilities in GST.

A workshop was also conducted under the chairmanship of the Chief Minister and Excise and Taxation Minister for all lawmakers where ministers and MLAs and administrative secretaries were invited on June 28, 2017.

State level Advance Ruling Authority and Screening Committee for Anti=Profiteering have been set up. An Additional Commissioner has been notified as Additional Commissioner (Appeals).

Capt Abhimanyu said various steps had been taken to enhance compliances under the GST. These include SMS alerts, emails and show-cause notices issued regularly to non-filers, drive undertaken for new registration, particularly in the sectors coming under the domain of GST for the first time like textile and pesticides, and regular monitoring and examination of top taxpayers, non-filers of returns, IGST draggers on a regular basis. Similarly, drive was conducted to examine claims of transitional credit shown in TRAN-1 and intensified enforcement activities.

Capt. Abhimanyu said foodgrains which had been exempted from GST were taxed at the rate of five per cent under VAT. The total collection of the state from foodgrains aggregated Rs 1,100 crore. Haryana is a producing state. In the pre-GST regime, the tax under CST accrued to the state on inter-state transactions.

GST being consumption-based tax, the state suffered a loss of about Rs 5,000 crore on this account. Many of the consumer goods were taxable at the rate of 13.125 per cent under VAT. Most of these items have been placed in the tax slab of 18 per cent wherein the state’s share is nine per cent. Therefore, it accounts for some loss of revenue to the state.

Capt Abhimanyu said on the other hand, the revenue from levy of service tax was exclusively under the domain of the Centre. In the GST regime, the states will also get 50 per cent of the collections on account of levy of GST on supply of services. It is a new levy for the state.

GST being a consumption-based tax and Haryana accounts for only two per cent of the population of the country. Being a major producing State suffered loss of about is Rs 5,000 crore on this account. The State also lost the revenue of Rs.1100 crore on the foodgrains. Despite all these factors, the collections under GST in the State have been sizeable and are showing increasing trend.

He said that a new Tax Research Unit has been set up in the head office for research and analysis. Ernst and Young LLP has been appointed consultant to provide technical support in the unit. The unit will conduct data mining and analyse the data so as to detect cases of evasion, provide reports for decision making and policy making.

Talking about major recovery initiatives, he said these included the Haryana Settlement of Outstanding Dues Scheme, 2017. In order to recover arrears of taxes before implementation of the GST, a One Time Settlement Scheme namely the ‘Haryana One Time Settlement Scheme for recovery of Outstanding Dues, 2017’ was notified on June 22, 2017.

Under this scheme, outstanding dues of Rs 2,328.36 crore have been recovered from 1,954 dealers. This has also resulted into substantial drop in litigation.

The Haryana Alternative Tax Compliance Scheme for Contractors, 2016 was introduced to avoid unending litigation and for speedy recovery of dues from the developers and builders was introduced on September 12, 2016.

The scheme was amended on June 2, 2017 to facilitate recovery of taxes from developers who could not opt for the Scheme earlier. An amount of Rs 833.31 crore has been recovered from 201 dealers under this scheme, Capt Abhimanyu added.